Audio on Warner movies

[BaronVH]

While looking at several movies that Warner has done on both formats, I realized that the Blu version has worse sound. Superman Returns has Dolby TrueHD on HD-DVD, but the Blu-ray only Dolby Digial 5.1. Others have Dolby Plus, but Blu just 5.1. This is even with the new Oceans 11-13 movies. Why? Will this continue?

[NoQuestion]

Not really sure what is going on with WB, i know that the harry potters are suppose to have HD audio on them i believe.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by BaronVH

While looking at several movies that Warner has done on both formats, I realized that the Blu version has worse sound. Superman Returns has Dolby TrueHD on HD-DVD, but the Blu-ray only Dolby Digial 5.1. Others have Dolby Plus, but Blu just 5.1. This is even with the new Oceans 11-13 movies. Why? Will this continue?

I'm not sure why HD DVD would ever be getting better sound than BD, but as long as Warner is duel format, Blu will never be treated to the fullest extent of it's capabilities. DD 5.1 is probably what BD would have ended up with on Transformers. I'm not sure Paramount would have gone to the extra effort to give BD the extra sound it could have supported in addition to all of the extras that were added. This is the problem with duel format support. The superior format gets the same lame release as the inferior format. My prediction is that Warner will go BD exclusive in 08 and Universal will follow suit at some point there after.

[sonicbox]

Superman Returns was remastered with TrueHD for BD. This version was bundled for a while with Pioneer (?) players. Since it really didn't sell very well, I don't think we'll see the TrueHD release on the street for a while. It's gonna take a bit to burn through all the pressed original discs.

Comments:

BD doesn't support Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 content... and, beyond that, decoding is also optional for the players. This is why you don't see DD+ on BD.

There really is no audible difference between "Dolby Digital Plus" and "Dolby Digital" at 640Kbps. So, the BD and HD DVD audio tracks will sound identical at 640Kbps. For these types of releases, "HD DVD" doesn't have better sound on most Warner releases. The improvements of DD+ are at lower bitrates (not really used on high-def discs) and higher bitrates... (Plus can go 1.5Mbps and up -- which is basically overkill -- if the author chooses.)

Paramount would have put a PCM track on Transformers if released on BD. They even did for the aborted Blades of Glory on BD, which is rarer than rare. Blades of Glory had a 1.5Mbps DD+ track on HD DVD... but since BD is limited to 640Kbps, they just used the extra space and went with PCM on BD. Transformers, also 1.5Mbps DD+ on HD DVD, would be authored similarly.

As time goes on, you'll see more Lossless or PCM on Warner BD discs, at least for higher profile titles or ones that can (honestly) benefit from them. (My opinion: The Oceans 11-13 movies wouldn't benefit, unless I was a specification warrior.)

[hoser]

Warner has been short-changing BD on audio for a long time.
Hopefully, this will change over time (or when they dump DUD).

IMO, all BDs should have lossless....HD is more than just video.

[Section Urbaine]

Originally Posted by hoser

Warner has been short-changing BD on audio for a long time.
Hopefully, this will change over time (or when they dump DUD).

IMO, all BDs should have lossless....HD is more than just video.

That's not entirely true, e.g. 2001:

BD:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/453/...ceodyssey.html

...This Blu-ray edition of '2001: A Space Odyssey' features an uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround track (48 kHz/24-Bit/6.9 Mbps)...


HD DVD:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/241/2...ceodyssey.html

...This HD DVD edition of '2001: A Space Odyssey' features a Dolby TrueHD surround track (48 kHz/24-Bit/3.0 Mbps)...

[BaronVH]

Originally Posted by sonicbox

Superman Returns was remastered with TrueHD for BD. This version was bundled for a while with Pioneer (?) players. Since it really didn't sell very well, I don't think we'll see the TrueHD release on the street for a while. It's gonna take a bit to burn through all the pressed original discs.

Comments:

BD doesn't support Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 content... and, beyond that, decoding is also optional for the players. This is why you don't see DD+ on BD.

There really is no audible difference between "Dolby Digital Plus" and "Dolby Digital" at 640Kbps. So, the BD and HD DVD audio tracks will sound identical at 640Kbps. For these types of releases, "HD DVD" doesn't have better sound on most Warner releases. The improvements of DD+ are at lower bitrates (not really used on high-def discs) and higher bitrates... (Plus can go 1.5Mbps and up -- which is basically overkill -- if the author chooses.)

Paramount would have put a PCM track on Transformers if released on BD. They even did for the aborted Blades of Glory on BD, which is rarer than rare. Blades of Glory had a 1.5Mbps DD+ track on HD DVD... but since BD is limited to 640Kbps, they just used the extra space and went with PCM on BD. Transformers, also 1.5Mbps DD+ on HD DVD, would be authored similarly.

As time goes on, you'll see more Lossless or PCM on Warner BD discs, at least for higher profile titles or ones that can (honestly) benefit from them. (My opinion: The Oceans 11-13 movies wouldn't benefit, unless I was a specification warrior.)

Thanks. That is exactly what I was interested in. I did also notice that the recent Kubrick releases had lossless sound, so maybe they are turning this around.

[BStecke]

I know of some people that got a hold of all the Harry Potters (overseas) and they all have PCM, compared to TrueHD on HD DVD. I think from here out we'll see Blu-ray's audio capabilities exploited by Warner. I think Ocean's were the last weak releases in the pipeline. If License To Wed has PCM . . .